1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for providing communication services via television (TV) white spaces and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method that provide communication services, which are provided to user terminals over a mobile communication network, to user terminals via TV white spaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
With an increase in the amount of data that is being used by mobile communication devices including smart phones, there is an increasing demand for the distribution of data via a communication network other than a mobile communication network related to a mobile base station. Recently, mobile communication devices have supported offloading from a conventional mobile communication network service to a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) service chiefly using the 2.4 GHz band. However, the 2.4 GHz band is problematic in that the probability of interference is high because it is the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) band and thus the frequency of use by multiple wireless communication devices is high, and in that a rapid reduction in performance occurs at any distance farther away than 10 m, which is the effective distance of the 2.4 GHz WLAN communication service.
In this case, a network using TV white spaces may be contemplated as an example of another available communication network. In connection with this, attempts were made to use a network using TV white spaces as means alternative to an existing communication network. Recently, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved “Super Wi-Fi” that enables TV white spaces, which were the unused and underused frequency bands of the digital TV broadcasting service spectrum, to be used for the wireless Internet, so that a basis was established for utilizing a wide area as a single Wi-Fi hotspot. However, a scheme for using a network using TV white spaces as a network complementary to a broadband mobile communication network has not been proposed yet.